Home-Nikon AM Synergy Secures New DLA Supply Chain Contract
TheUS Defense Logistics Agency(DLA) has awardedNikon AM Synergy, a contract under the JAMA IV IDIQ Pilot Parts Program, bringing the company into the US military’s AM supply chain as a direct production partner.
The DLA is using this pilot to determine whether additive manufacturing can reliably replace conventional production methods for critical defense components, and the outcome will shape how the agency structures its broader supply base.
The program draws from Nikon AM’s Technology Center in Long Beach, California, which currently serves naval, defense, aviation, and space industry customers. Dr. Behrang Poorganji, Vice President of Technology at Nikon AM, said, “Nikon AM continues to build upon and accelerate our holistic approach to deliver vital advanced manufacturing and sustainment capabilities that are crucial to the United States and allied partners at speed.”
Direct Supply Chains Solve Legacy Bottlenecks
The pilot is designed to help the DLA establish scalable additive manufacturing processes and a reliable support base for warfighter readiness. The Long Beach facility’s positioning as a direct DLA supplier is operationally significant.
Defense supply chains typically run through multiple intermediary tiers, and direct supplier status compresses lead times and reduces the number of handoffs between design, production, and delivery.
The DLA manages end-to-end global defense supply chain logistics for the U.S. military, including spare and replacement parts. The agency’s interest in additive manufacturing reflects a deeper problem: legacy components for aging platforms are increasingly difficult to source through traditional channels, either because original suppliers have exited the market or because minimum order quantities make small-batch production uneconomical.
AM offers a potential path around both constraints, but only if the production workflows can be validated to meet military qualification standards, which is precisely what this pilot is designed to test.
Budget Cuts Meet Rising Qualification Demands
Source: 3D Printing Industry
